Strona tytułowa

Introduction to the whole issue.

After 1989 the number of translations of Bulgarian literature into Polish decreased dramatically in comparison with the output of the previous 50 years. On the one hand, this seems to be caused by a complete change of the Polish state’s cultural policy principles, too little activity on the part of relevant institutions, or even giving up the obligation to create and support the inter-cultural dialogue or to mediate in this process. On the other hand, it is primarily market economy and interest of the media and not the efforts or commitment of the translators that are decisive factors for the number and quality of publications.

This text examines the reception of Polish literature into professional Bulgarian publications for literature and art. It submits to a discussion the following sources: The special issue of „Literaturen westnik” („Literary Weekly”) entitled Polish Literature of the Nineties, no.11 (22.—28.03.2000), devoted entirely to the changes occurred in Polish literature and artistic life at the end of the past century; and no. 18 (8.—14.05.2002) of the same journal presents under the title Polish Nike, presents the most prestigious Polish literary award and its laureates during the years 1997—2002. Mentioned above journal „Literaturen westnik” („Literary Weekly”) had two more special issues: Literature on Heel – or Better Literature, no. 35 (2.—8.11), and Literature before the Mirror or Better Literature, no. 6 (15.—21.02), published in 2006, both focused on Polish women’s feminist writers. The article takes also into account the issue of „Panorama”, no. 3 (2002), which gives an overview of Polish literature translated into Bulgarian after 1989. Included into this discussion is the periodical „Kritika”, no. 3—4 (2006); it gives a survey of the most interesting statements of Polish literary critical thought in the same period, that is, after 1989. Similarly, the „Slavianski dialozi” („Slavic Dialogues”), no. 8 (2007), that presents some most important ways of development in contemporary Polish culture. 

The article surveys translated excerpts from Polish literature, which have appeared in the Bulgarian specialized literary press-both weeklies and monthlies. The selection of Polish writers is reviewed as an aesthetic choice of texts, as a traditional presence in the Bulgarian culture, and as representative for the Polish literature in Bulgaria. The socio-cultural selection of Polish subjects is being analyzed and also the way they are being rendered by the translators.

The article discusses translation transformations in Polish version of the Bulgarian fairy tale Trzej bracia i złote jabłko (Three Brothers and the Golden Apple). The fairy tale has been published in the collection Złota moneta za słowo. Bułgarskie bajki i legendy ludowe (Golden Coin for a Word. Bulgarian Fairy Tales and Legends — selection and introduction by Georgi Minczew, Lodz 2006).The main subject of the analysis is aesthetic code of the translation — the ways the translator has shown specific features of the oral text such as repetitions, forms and clichés. The author of the article is particulary focused on traformations on syntactic level (transformations in statements structures, changes in words order and text segmentation).The choices made by the translator prove that he wasn’t fully aware what literature genre he is translating. As the result, the translation is lacking essential for folk texts, and for fairy tale in particular, stylistic features which appear in the original.

After 1990 the translations of the Croatian war writings relatively seldom appear in Polish translations of Croatian literature. In the realm of lyrics the translation of Stamać & Sanader‘s book U ovom strašnom času. Antologija hrvatske ratne lirike is the most importanat publication. In this article two translations of Tadijanović‘ poem entitled Molba munji nebeskoj are analysed. The authoress of the first translation Muriel Kordowicz has translated the poem in the above mentioned antology, the author of the second one Julian Kornhauser has published his own translations of Tadijanović‘ poem in the magazine „Literatura na Świecie”. In the recapitulation of this analysis the statement of two different translators‘ strategies is given. The Kordowicz‘ translation is an example of philological model of translation and the Kornhauser‘s translation is an example of transpositional-modulational one.

The text presents one of Dubravka Ugresic’s latest novels perceived as the subject of translation. The ministry of pain founded on (ex-)Yugoslavian past turns out extremely difficult, in some parts it seems close to the untranslability. The problem concerns especially the parts which are more essayistic and estimate Croatian literature or communism in former Yugoslavia. Dorota Jovanka Ćirlić, the translator, had decided to explain some of the difficulties in her special note added to the novel (the footnotes supplement the writer’s endnotes). The troublesome words and phrases left without that kind of explanation might find it directly in the novel (descriptively commented) or require reader’s self-reliance. Apart from the cultural setting there is also a language question in the novel which because of its complex character and the translation strategy shall be interpreted separately.

Does the musicality of the Josip Sever`s poem klišej kiše come through in the translation? The text Has the music gone from Josip Sever`s work? illustrates the influence of the translation process on textual levels of musicality: the sound sphere (consciously formed in relation to music) and making music a theme. It is mainly based on Polish post-war musico-literary studies, especially Andrzej Hejmej’s theory from the book Musicality of a literary work.

The paper deals with translations of Polish literary works into Croatian language in the period between 1990 and 2007. We took into consideration only those translations that were published as books or those published in Croatian journals as a part of a larger thematic piece dedicated to Polish literature. Apart from translations of literary works, the article deals with the translations of literary-historical and literary-theoretical studies, as well as linguistic works. Our detailed revision confirms high productivity of Croatian translators of Polish literature.

The article engages attention to the translation problems of a new „Prague literature”. It analyzes three polish translations of the following novels Podobojí by Hodrová, Druhé město by Ajvaz and Sestra by Topol. It underlines that L. Engelking overcame almost perfectly mixture of the styles, convention, words; but on the other hand he chooses the solutions that weaken the relation between Prague tradition and topography. The Prague context is important as a starting point, however in a translator strategy Prague specific is often subordinated to a general meaning.

Czech so called „bestseller literature” is represented in Polish readers’ enviroment by translations of Michal Viewegh’s, Irena Obermannová’s and Halina Pawlowská’s books. These authors are celebrities in Czech Republic, their activity (both as writers and TV programms’ moderators) evokes distinct cultural connotation. Their books are extremally popular and best selling on domestic market. But in Poland all these authors are slightly known. We can find reasons of such situation in many levels: in a lack of marketing actions accompanying their books on Polish market, lack of information about these authors, in an existence of pattern of Czech culture and literature in Polish readers’ consiousness that approves high artistic literature and depreciates bestseller literature.

The purpose of this article is to show the ways of expressing the Macedonian category of witness in Polish translations of Macedonian prose. At the beginning we present the situation of the прекажаност category against a background of the other Slavonic languages and than we characterize this category and its grammatical exponents. After that we describe the problem of truth modality which the category of witness is included in. We particularly take into concideration Polish language and the Macedonian adverbs serving this function. In the final part of this article we present some examples showing the Macedonian прекажаност category which are taken from the Polish translations of Macedonian texts. It lets us get the representation of the practical usage of the devices approchable for translators.

The research on translation of Polish drama to the languages of former Yugoslavia countries is becoming an interdisciplinary discourse. This is because the theatrical reception is wider than the literery one and Polish drama and theatre plays an important role in the history of the culture of South Slavonic countries after the World War II. The period between 1990 and 2006, that is analysed in this article of Polish drama publications in Serbia, is especially important for Balkans because of undergoing war. Due to the situation that paralyses cultural activity, therewas only one drama published in Belgrad translated by Biserka Rajcic (I. Villquist Helver’s Night) and there were four excerpts of contemporary dramas in the magazine Polja translated by Zoran Djeric (P. Jurek Porno Generation, M. Pruchniewski Łucja and her children, P. Sala Good from now on, A. Saramanowicz Testosteron). The author emphasizes translation dilemmas that emerged in theatre scenarios that are far away from literery translations also the ones that weren’t published. She also suggests looking at theatrological research that would show more of Polish drama in many Slavonic languages and cultures.

The 30th anniversary of the death of Miloš Crnjanski (1893—1977) and the publishing of the translation of his novel A Novel about London markt the beginning of studying how the nowel was received by the readers of the original version compared to the readers of the translation with all of its foreign elements. In A Novel about London a reader can easily notice the elements of foreign culture. This leads to the reflection on the differences in how readers of the original version end readers of the translation perceive foreign elements. The different system of connotations is influenced by different language patterns which are typical for the readers of translations. The reading of the Polish version of Crnjanski’s novel let us conclude that the solutions applied by the translator of the foreign text activate the reader’s impression of strangeness which is caused by the presence in the translation of lexical end grammatical categories which are incompatible with the Polish language standards. Nevertheless, the foreign elements of the translation lose their importance when faced with the universality and topical theme of the novel.

The review of polish translation of slovak drama between 1990—2005 regards two areas of dramatic text’s circulation. They are: scenic area and literatury area, which are also two spaces for direct contact between recipient and a text of a drama’s translation. During an indicated time slovak drama were staged by polish theatres seldom, stagings of radio-plays were dominated. The reason is in insufficiency of slovak drama’s translations in polish. Translations from before 1989 weren’t published, they loos at translators’s archives and now stage managers haven’t approach to them. From the beginning of 90. years only four translations of slovak drama were published. They also weren’t staged by polish profesional theatres. The direct presence of slovak drama in Poland is almost zero. This situation is only slightly owing by translators’s decision about a text to translating. It’s also slightly owing by a quality of translations like a final effect of a translators’s choices during his work. The minimal knowlegde of polish recipient anout slovak drama and theatre is also very important agent.

The author presents in this paper her consideration of the strategy of translation taken by Jacek Bukowski, polish translator of Václav Pankovčín prose. Short stories Marakéš (1994) and the novel Tri ženy pod orechom (1996) by Václav Pankovčín were publicated in Poland under the title Marakesz (2006) and are the only one example of slovak prose transalted into polish this year. The author of the paper discusses transtlatological problems of the prose wchich strongly corespondents with magical realism, she concentrates on the semantic signals of the text, significant elements of the structure which define the boundary-line of the meaning space of Václav Pankovčín works. Finaly she reflects on the transfer of implicated senses and meanings from original into translation. She reflects how in proces of translation the translator transfered hormony of fundamental codes of the original (lexical, semantics, cultural and estetic).

Between the years 1990 and 2006, about 50 Polish books (poetry, prose and drama) were translated in already independent Slovenia, also a lot of single poems, short stories and fragments of more substantial compositions. Slovene macrochoices from Polish literature on the one hand constitute continuation of the traditional presence in the Slovene culture, on the other hand they result from increasing language and encyclopedic competencies of the translators. The choices are defined by four criteria: Polishness, empathy, the desire to get to know the Polish mentality, the historically-literal process and personal motivation. The authors of choices and translations of Polish literature are translators belonging to many generations, differently evaluating the needs of a Slovene reader and the character of Polish literature and mentality. Although Polish literature is distinctly present in the Slovene literary life, in the Slovene choices from it dominates perspective of strangeness, with which translators from different generations familiarise the native recepient, choosing works belonging to the canon and often to the opposite pole.

The poetry of Gregor Strniša — one of the greatest Slovenian poet of the XX century — is widely presented in Poland by Katarina Šalamun-Biedrzycka. Apart from poetry anthology Silver and moss she also published independent selection of his poetry Odysseus. Presented article considers the translator’s choices on three levels — chosen poetry volumes, poems and translator’s transformations itself. On the level of chosen poetry volumes the translator omits the last three ones, clearly realizing specific for the artist idea of the „cosmic consciousness”. The circle of receiving audience is being devoided of even selective experience of the volumes’ character, in which Strnisa realizes (on the lyrical range) his conception of the world and universe. On the level of poetics translator presents Strniša’s poems only as „degrees of releasing terror” and at the same time limits the perspective of the created reality only to the dimension inspired by existentialist philosophy. Comparing the original text with the translation has proven that they differ significantly. However, Šalamun-Biedrzycka’s translations undoubtedly deserve merit for their pioneering quality.

Rozka Štefan an outstanding specialist in Polish studies, translator and expert on Polish literature. She has devoted all her life to presenting Polish culture and literature to Slovenians. She has translated most of Polish Romantic literature into Slovenian (mainly Mickiewicz) and works of the most important contemporary poets rooted in „Polishness”, such as: Staff, Tuwim, Różewicz or Miłosz. Her translator selections (in the broad sense) are always tinted with a strategy of presentation of what is typically Polish, what is specific for the culture of the „country on the Vistula”; this is also proof that for a good translator there are no limits to convey the meaning. In 1999 an anthology of Polish love lyrics titled Antologija poljske ljubezenske lirike was published in Slovenia, in 2000 — her translation of Adam Mickiewicz’s Konrad Wallenrod followed by a selection of Tuwim’s poems (2001) — Julian Tuwim. The last three translation works by the 94 year old translator — covered by this paper — are perfect evidence of her translator consistency; they are a specific „summa” of her translating style, an essence of her translating perfectionism, both with respect to macro and micro choices in the plane of specific translated texts. Their common trait is her strategy of presentation of the „Polishness”.

The subject of the analysis made in the article is the translation of Witold Gombrowicz’s Diary (1904—1969) into the Slovenian language. This translation has a specific character, because the translator has shortened the original text — he decides what fragment of the work will reach the reader. The author of the article assumes that Slovenian literary consciousness is shown in the translator’s decision. With this in mind the Diary is treated mainly as a testimony of time, and less often as a literary piece, therefore intervention such as shortening is admissible. Then the author shows examples in which shortening the text changed its meaning. In the conclusions the author acknowledges that in the case of interpreting the translation, one can view the translator as a co-author of the work. As a result of his decision the work strays in many places from the shape of the original — however it also creates separate senses. The translator’s solutions were determined by different location of this literary kind in the sphere of the Polish culture and the culture receiving the work (Slovenian).

The volume of poems translated by Tony Pretnar I Whisper to you (1992) written by poets of different historical and literary periods clearly reveals the personal dialog of the translator with literature. The personal experience of the translator had the influence on the choice of the poems. The subject of his „diary of translation” is isolation, feeling of deficiency (Szymborska, Orkan), death (Szymborska, Bursa), the crisis of expression (Wojaczek). However, it seems that the definite expression of Pretnar’s translation is optimistic. A chance to overcome death he sees in a creative act. (also „quiet conversation” of Wojaczek in spite of his doubt in the power of word expression stands a poetical witness in sense of life) and in religions experience (Wat, Staff, Gałczyński). The most everlasting confirmation of eternity for Pretnar were love and contiguity to another human being (Krasiński, Przybora).

In this review od Czech and Polish translations of Slovene literature in the past 17 years, the author shows diversity and resemblance in the cultural image of Slovenia in the collective consciousness of the two nations. The chosen era of research falls into two distinct periods. In the first, before the year 2000, the translations lied solely on the shoulders of individual translators, members of the „old” generation. The second period is characterized with a great outburst of translated Slovene literature by the young generation of traslators. Trough analysis and comparison of translated books and translations published in journals and on the internet in the Czech Republic and Poland the author draws our attention to the discrepancy in the amount of translated publications. The article explores the possible reasons for these changes and differences in the field of Slovene translated literature in the two related countries.

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